@Syd

Wikipedia says it's Wendigo, but it also lists "Windigo, Weendigo, Windago, Waindigo, Windiga, Witiko, Wihtikow, 'Wanka', and numerous other variants."

Windigo just looks better to me. Also, if you know the actual story of the Windigos, it's pretty trippy.

edited 19th Dec '11 2:20:07 PM by SkyStrike

Twilight is best pony, Fluttershy and Rarity round out the top three, and the rest of mane cast gets shuffled around depending on my mood at the time.

The thing with the AJ/RD battle is that while RD is way faster, I think AJ is both more durable and stronger. RD would probably have to nail AJ a couple times to hurt her, while AJ could probably knock RD out cold with one good kick. And AJ has shown the capability to lasso RD in flight, so I think they're probably even.

Also, I still don't get the issue with Twilight; she is really powerful, but she's hardly a deus ex machina. As often as not her magic makes the situation worse.

Anyway, what do you think would happen if Celestia got hit with Poison Joke?

I can see where you are coming from. On the other hand this isn't the kind of series where a character's "power level" will really have a significant impact on what happens in the show. In fact her "power level" and personality will probably mean that she will get her flank handed to her more often then not (especially if it's funny).

edited 19th Dec '11 2:20:17 PM by Mio

I don't know, but that fic needs to be written right now.

edited 19th Dec '11 2:20:27 PM by CDRW

You'll have to remind the geriatric guy with gray hairs (me) what that does, referencing Poison Joke.

edited 19th Dec '11 2:21:07 PM by pvtnum11

@ JT

If Mousa got hit with PJ...I think her horn would go limp, her wings would flip upside, and she would shrink down to a tiny size. In other words...PJ is even more deadly to her than to a normal pony.

Also, the PJ those agents were using is a super fast acting mutant PJ...effects take hold in seconds, not a day.

@Syd

Wikipedia says it's Wendigo, but it also lists "Windigo, Weendigo, Windago, Waindigo, Windiga, Witiko, Wihtikow, 'Wanka', and numerous other variants."

So, it's kind of like "Moammar Khaddafi, " in that there's really no right or wrong way to spell it. I'll just leave it as-is, then. Thanks.

Either that or it wouldn't do anything to her. Her being a god and all

How sad is it that the only thing keeping me sane about Twi's power level is the fact that at least the GODS are still stronger than her

Now I'm thinking what would happen if Mousa got hit with it...

edited 19th Dec '11 2:26:28 PM by JapaneseTeeth

. . .I didn't know Mousa was an Alicorn Princess.

edited 19th Dec '11 2:27:08 PM by Mio

@ pvtnum 11, Poison Joke makes random magical effects happen. It was the episode where zecora appeared and Twilight's horn went floppy, Applejack shrunk, Fluttershy became Flutterguy, Pinkie Pie's tongue swelled, Rainbow Dash couldn't fly straight, and Rarity...I don't remember what happened to her.

Poison Joke ends up in the MLP thread. What does it do to the posters?

It basically gave her dreadlocks.

And yeah, it's pretty much poison ivy that plays a practical joke on you instead of giving you a rash.

edited 19th Dec '11 2:29:05 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Hold on there Fran, I think that's a bit of a class issue, isn't it? Like in D+D, a sorceror can only take a certain amount of skills because those are the spells they're sort of 'born' with (bear in mind here my knowledge of D+D is fairly minimal, largely relegated to what I absorbed when building in the Never Winter engine for school), but a Wizard can learn any spell because they get them by learning. So in essence having 'magic' for a cutie mark means that your a wizard as opposed to the unicorns base sorcerer; you can learn any spell you like, but you have to learn them. And to be fair Twilight did learn most of those spells through study, rather than through just intuitively knowing them.

Honestly, the whole 'you only get magic that relates to your talent' thing sort of bothers me. There are spell books - lots and lots of spell books, full of different sorts of spells. There are classes of spells. How common would magic as a special talent have to be for that? What I think it means is that there are a few spells you happen to know as an intuitive knack - as in, an actual talent. A unicorn could still learn a spell with study the way Twilight does, they just happen to know one or two right off the bat in a way a person who is naturally gifted at art knows one or two tricks intuitively. Twilight's 'talent' in magic just happens to be her hack-level power.

It'd give me Pinkie Pie-esque Rule of Funny powers.

... I'd find MYSELF Obnoxious

Some guys calling himself "The zebra of FiM Fiction"

I wasn't about to let that go, so...:

I fear that I must call you up on that boast
You may not be bad, maybe better than most
But I've been doing Zecorans for ages, you see
Bragging or not, there're few better than me
A friend and I carry on whole conversations
In the manner you see, with no complications
We scare the other readers and impress the rest
We're both really good, but I'm considered the best
So make your claim if you will, that you are bona fide
But take note, my dear friend: coins have more than one side...

How sad is it that the only thing keeping me sane about Twi's power level is the fact that at least the GODS are still stronger than her

Also, remember that Twilight's spells tend to fail at the worst possible times.

@Kegisak: Yeah, my take on unicorn magic isn't that Twilight has hax-level "I can learn any spell including those that other ponies can't". I've always assumed that any unicorn can learn any spell, including those they aren't inherently talented in, but Twilight is just better at it. Like how anyone can learn mathematics if they put the time in, but some people are just better at it than others.

I've been saying that for months. You aren't exactly a Game Breaker if the spell only does what it's supposed to half the time you use it.

edited 19th Dec '11 2:32:26 PM by JapaneseTeeth

I just think of it as Twilight having all the meta-magic feats at level 1 with no penalties.

I quote from Boast Busters

"Unicorns are only supposed to have a little magic that matches their special talent"

I quote from Boast Busters

"Unicorns are only supposed to have a little magic that matches their special talent"

Twilight's special talent is magic. A 50% success rate isn't anything to brag about, though.

I was responding mainly to JT, who said that any unicorn can learn ANY spell (Twilight's just better at it). That quote seems to imply that that isn't the case

One thing about Twi is that she tends to be shortsighted. She didn't relise what would happen when she used the want it need it spell in lesson zero, or she didn't think that greed spike could break through the walls when she locked him in the house.

Well... during Lesson Zero... she was kinda insane at the time.

Actually, how often has her magic failed? Swarm of the Century and Return Of Harmony are the only cases that instantly spring to mind

edited 19th Dec '11 2:44:54 PM by gingerninja666

Yeah, but Twilight has been wrong about magic before. Almost consistently, in fact, for somepony who allegedly studies it. To be honest I take a lot of what's said in the show with a bit of a grain of salt. If it's show, that one thing, but if it's only said... well, they could be lying, or wrong.

It just doesn't make any sense that a unicorn can only have certain kinds of magic, and then all of a sudden a pony comes along and say "oop, looks like I can do every kind of magic!" It feels almost mary sue-ish. Especially when you consider how often Twilight lectures on how Magic A is Magic A, for her to come along and suddenly be magic B just doesn't make sense in universe. I think it's still possible that when she said that she meant that they start off with a bit of magic related to their particular knack. Especially since I can't think of any way the system could work that some ponies would just get a spell, but then other ponies would have to work for their spells, but could get any one. It only makes sense if any pony can get any spell, but have a hard time of it. Like Jteeth said - some people may have a knack for certain feilds, but any person can pick up any skill if they try hard enough.

Speaking of Boast Busters, it makes me feel sorry for Twilight when people are angry with her character for being really good at magic, considering she sacrificed pretty much everything else in the pursuit of her studies. It's like, it's what she thought her friends would be like in Boast Busters, before she was informed that nobody was that petty.

edit:

I kinda like that thought. And after all, trying really hard at magic is basically her life.

edited 19th Dec '11 2:48:59 PM by Enlong